


Taking Out The Trash

by Aglarien



Category: The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-31
Updated: 2016-01-31
Packaged: 2018-05-17 11:35:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5867737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aglarien/pseuds/Aglarien
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Erestor is consistently bothered by elves, dwarves and men who seek his favor, even though he's in a relationship with Glorfindel.  He wonders why it never bothers Glorfindel.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Taking Out The Trash

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Mawgy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mawgy/gifts).



> Disclaimer: I do not own nor do I profit from these characters.  
> Beta: Jaiden  
> Request: Erestor and Glorfindel are in a committed, long-term relationship, yet so many people (elves, men, dwarves, etc) flirt with Erestor and try to gain his favour. Erestor is curious as to why this never makes Glorfindel jealous. Written for Mawgy.

Nearly all marriages, even happy ones, are mistakes: in the sense that almost certainly in a more perfect world, or even with a little more care in this very imperfect one) both partners might be found more suitable mates. But the real soul-mate is the one you are actually married to.  
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892 - 1973), Letter to Michael Tolkien, March 1941  
Marriage is not just spiritual communion; it is also remembering to take out the trash.  
Dr. Joyce Brothers (1928 - )

 

 

Erestor sat in his favorite chair in the darkened room, Tinnu on his lap, one hand massaging his temples and the other massaging the black cat’s back in time to the pounding of his head. So absorbed was he in the throbbing pain that he did not hear anyone enter the room until a hand rested on his lap and an elf knelt before him.

“What ails you, Erestor,” Glorfindel whispered. “What has happened?”

Erestor raised his head and a wan smile crossed his pale countenance. He moved Tinnu from his lap to beside him on the chair and leant forward to enfold the elf he loved more than anyone else in his arms, knowing Glorfindel’s closeness would ease his pain. 

“Did something happen today?” Glorfindel asked, gently returning Erestor’s embrace and rubbing his back. 

“Just that stupid Dúnadan,” Erestor murmured into Glorfindel’s shoulder.

“What Dúnadan? What did he do?”

“Lunnir. He followed me around. All. Day. Long. I kept telling him to go away and he wouldn’t leave. He kept fawning over me, asking me if he could do anything to help me. He even started to read love poems to me. I told him I was bound and it did no good at all. He made my skin crawl.” 

“Ah. He is clearly besotted with you, Erestor,” Glorfindel said, gently pulling Erestor to his feet and leading him to their bed. “They cannot seem to resist your beauty, my fair one. Rest against me and I will massage your headache away.” 

Erestor sighed in relief as Glorfindel put his words in action, massaging his head with just the right amount of pressure to relax him. In a matter of moments, Glorfindel’s hands worked their magic and Erestor slept.

~~~

Glorfindel left on patrol early the next morning, so Erestor ordered his breakfast to be served at his work desk. He cautiously entered his office, peeking around corners and into niches, Tinnu moving ahead of him to occupy his favorite place across from Erestor’s desk. Lunnir seemed to be nowhere around. He breathed a sigh of relief and sat just as a serving maid entered and set a tray with his meal on the desk.

“Good morning, my lord,” she said. “I am Gailien. I am pleased to serve you.” She poured a cup of tea from the pot, uncovered the plate containing Erestor’s breakfast, and set it all before him. “I am newly arrived to this beautiful valley, my lord. If there is anything at all I can do for you, you have only to ask. Anything – at all.” She touched Erestor’s arm in a manner that was all too personal.

Erestor jerked his arm away from the maid. He supposed the smile she gave him was meant to be a seductive one, but it failed miserably as far as he was concerned. “I would appreciate it if you would keep your hands to yourself, Gailien. My husband would not appreciate you touching me. That will be all for now,” he said coldly. 

His tone apparently did not daunt the chit. “Of course, my lord,” she replied, touching Erestor’s hand in passing before she smiled, bowed, and left the room.

Erestor shivered, his skin crawling as it had done the day before. He had an overwhelming urge to wash his hands, and he found his breakfast had turned remarkably unappealing. He sighed and wished Glorfindel had not had to go out on patrol. Rising from his desk, he took the tray and set it on the floor for Tinnu, and went instead to the dining hall to find Melpomaen and breakfast with his friend. He was sure that Mel’s gentle and pleasant nature could take his mind off of what had just happened. 

Melpomaen did indeed restore Erestor’s mood, and when he returned to his office he found what he had overlooked before. In the top drawer of his desk, written on a half-page of velum in Glorfindel’s fine script, he read, “Dearest one, remember that whatever happens this day that you are mine as I am yours. I am beside you even though we are apart, for you hold my very soul in your hands.” He smiled, held the note to his breast, and then read it again before slipping it inside his tunic where it rested against his heart.

~~~

That night, Erestor threw himself into Glorfindel’s arms, burying his face in his mate’s neck. “Stupid, stupid new maid. Why do they always think they can touch me?”

“Touch you? Who touched you? Where?” Glorfindel kissed his mate before moving aside to slip out of his cloak and armor.

“A new serving maid who brought me breakfast this morning. Gailien, I think her name was.” Erestor helped Glorfindel unfasten his breast plate. “She had the audacity to touch my arm and my hand and make innuendos at me. I put her in her place, fed the breakfast she brought me to Tinnu, and went to sit with Mel in the dining hall.”

Glorfindel chuckled. “Well done, Erestor.” He grabbed his mate and held him close. “Some day they will all learn that you are mine alone, as I am yours.”

Erestor wove his fingers into Glorfindel’s long, golden tresses. “I loved the note you wrote me. I kept it in my tunic all day. Are there none who try and seduce you?”

“They would not dare.” One of Glorfindel’s eyebrow’s rose and he grinned. “I have an idea.”

 

~~~

The next morning, after he and Glorfindel had breakfasted together, Erestor set off to his office with a new addition to his wardrobe, courtesy of his husband: a dagger, strapped around his tunic with a finely decorated belt, and just visible as his surcoat moved while he walked. If Lunnir appeared again, perhaps brandishing the dagger would help, and if Gailien deigned to touch him again he would feel no compunction in jamming the dagger through her hand. All right, maybe that was a touch overly dramatic, but the she-elf made his skin creep.

As matters turned out, it was not Lunnir or Galien who bothered him that day, and the dagger was not needed. A delegation of dwarves had entered the valley with trade goods. Their designated negotiator, Farin, had immediately fallen under Erestor’s spell, presenting the chief counselor a bouquet of flowers purloined from Celebrían's gardens - and presenting on bended knee, no less! 

Well, at least this one did not make his skin crawl, so absurd was the notion. “Farin, for Aulë’s sake, get up off the floor! I thank you for the lovely flowers, but the notion of your courting me is impossible. I am married, and I don’t think you want Glorfindel of Gondolin coming after you for trying to seduce his mate, do you?”

The dwarf understood far better than Elves or a Dúnadan, at least, and after the blood left his face, he took himself off to tell his brother, Narve, to negotiate with Erestor, saying that his broken heart could not bear to complete the task.

That night, Erestor regaled Glorfindel with the story, both of them chuckling and not feeling in the least guilty for making jest of the poor dwarf. 

~~~

The following day, while Glorfindel was in and out of the Last Homely House working on administrative tasks, Erestor quietly worked in his office, writing out the trade agreements he had negotiated with the dwarves. One of Glorfindel’s guards, a tall, dark-haired elf called Eluvir, happened into Erestor’s office and interrupted the counselor’s work with some rather pointed innuendos and language that was a bit too bawdy for Erestor’s taste. 

The irate counselor stood, drew his dagger and forcibly stabbed it into the wood of his desk. His voice turned to ice. “If you deem it prudent to repeat your words or anything like them again, Eluvir, this dagger will not be going into wood but into your flesh!” 

The guard apologized and beat a hasty retreat. 

That night, as Erestor lay curled around Glorfindel in the bed, sated from their lovemaking, his mind wandered through the episode with Eluvir. He had just recalled seeing Glorfindel pass his office right before the guard had arrived. Surely Glorfindel had heard the confrontation? “Glorfindel?”

“Hmmm?” Glorfindel pulled Erestor closer and nuzzled his shoulder.

“Do you not ever get jealous?”

“You mean because of the Elves and Men and even Dwarves who try and take you from me? No, not jealous. I get angry at them, for you are mated to me, but I know in my heart you would never be unfaithful to me, just as I would never be unfaithful to you. You are my bonded mate, my dearest friend, the light of my world. If I were jealous, I would want to wrap you up and hide you away and keep you all to myself, and that you would not stand. You cannot be tied up and hidden way and I would never take your freedom from you. I love you, Erestor, and I believe with all my heart that you love me, but I cannot smother you to protect you.” 

Erestor nodded in understanding, thinking of Glorfindel’s words. He could never be kept hidden away for his own protection, away from Elrond and all the rest of his friends. Glorfindel knew him well. Truthfully, he did still think it a bit odd that Glorfindel was not jealous, but he was content in his mate’s answer for the moment. He thought if he’d seen anyone pestering Glorfindel the way he’d been pestered, he’d be jealous enough to take his dagger to whoever it was – or at least threaten to. After all, Glorfindel belonged to him and only to him. It would certainly upset him, there was no question about that. “I love you more than my life,” he finally said, before moving Glorfindel’s head and kissing him fervently, all thoughts of jealousy forgotten. 

 

~~~

It was perhaps a week later when Erestor was sitting in Elrond’s office, the two of them speaking about the corn harvest and which flock of sheep needed to be moved to which new grazing land when Erestor suddenly asked, “Do you not think it strange that Glorfindel does not get jealous of other Elves or Men always flirting with me?”

Elrond looked at Erestor blankly for a moment before laughing heartily. When he was finally able to control himself he asked, “Whatever makes you think he is not jealous? Well, perhaps jealous is the wrong word. Glorfindel wastes neither time nor energy on jealousy, for he already holds that which is dearest to him: you, my friend. And he has ever been the very essence of patience, which cannot abide with jealousy.”

“But how can he see what is happening and not do anything? I am certain he heard when Eluvir was propositioning me, yet he did nothing!”

“Did nothing? What makes you think that? Have you seen Eluvir since?”

Erestor thought. He hadn’t. “No, nor any of the others, come to think on it. What are you saying, Elrond? Speak plain with me.”

Elrond leant back in his chair, steepled his fingers together and smiled. “What was the name of that new serving maid? Gailien? I understand she was moved to the laundry where she spends her days with her arms in soapy hot water up to her elbows.”

“No!” Erestor breathed. “Really? What of Lunnir, the Dúnadan?”

“Removed from Imladris that very day by Elladan and Elrohir and the simple act of including him in the last party who set out hunting wargs.”

“The dwarf? He was not near as bad as the others and I had only to explain things to him. Tell me Glorfindel didn’t hurt him?”

Elrond smiled. “He is quite unscathed. But did you not hear the commotion about some poor dwarf finding that his leggings had been altered as he slept and cut into a, shall we say, delicate part of his body? A new pair was made for him, but only after he had to wear the others for a day.”

Erestor slapped his hand over his mouth to stifle a guffaw. “And Eluvir?” he whispered.

“Sent to the farthest border on guard duty for the next several months.”

“Oh, my,” Erestor finally said, smiling at Elrond. “Glorfindel truly does love me, doesn’t he?” He felt warm and protected, as though Glorfindel’s arms were around him. His husband had protected him without stifling his freedom.

“You never had a doubt, did you?” Elrond asked. 

 

~~~

 

Erestor carried the tray containing a pot of tea and the finest pastries made by Imladris’ bakers into Glorfindel’s office. Tinnu bounded into the room before him and jumped up on Glorfindel’s desk, his nose telling him that Erestor had placed a small plate of fish for him amongst the tea things. 

Erestor set the tray on the desk, giving Tinnu his plate of fish before leaning over and kissing Glorfindel soundly.

“What is this?” Glorfindel asked with a smile. “What a lovely surprise! My two favorite visitors.” He reached over the scratched the cat’s head between his ears.

“This?” Erestor asked, smiling back as he sat across from Glorfindel and began to serve the tea. “I wanted to do something to thank you for taking out my trash.”

Glorfindel chuckled as he accepted the cup of tea. “It was my pleasure, Erestor. It was my very great pleasure.”

~End


End file.
